Love Competition
by silencer06
Summary: Three challenges to win the heart of an unknown, extremely wealthy suitor. And none of them are what you would expect. A challenge of indurance, strength, and intelligence. A/U


Love Competition

Sometimes life just doesn't happen the way that you hope it will. Sometimes things really couldn't get much worse.

This was one of those times.

I am Tenten and at the time I was on a camping trip. I should probably mention that this wasn't the problem. I like camping. The issue was who I was camping with and why I was camping with them. I mean seriously, who signed me up to go camping with a bunch of annoying girly-girls so that I could compete with them for the love of some rich boy? No, seriously, who signed me up for that because when I find them I'm going to murder them in cold blood.

I can handle being around girly-girls. Some of my best friends (Ino and Sakura) are girly-girls. But I am not friends with any of those girls and I would be hard pressed to put up with Ino and Sakura if they were put into a situation where they had no hair dryer.

There was one girl here who wasn't totally annoying but she was really quiet and she just sat and watched everyone else. I sat beside her though because at least she wasn't freaking out over the lack of accommodations that camping provides.

I didn't know her name, but she was pretty cute. Her hair was navy blue and her eyes were white. She's one of those people that if you see them crying your first response is to want to hug them, whether you know them or not.

In any case, she was looking at me.

"You don't mind camping?" she asked and her voice was like wind in the trees.

"I like camping… but not with them. Why do they feel the need to be so loud? We are where we are and no amount of complaining is going to change that," I responded.

"My cousin likes camping, too," she said. It seemed random but I let it go since she was more normal than the other girls there. "I don't like camping, much," she admitted a moment later, "but I agree with you, complaining won't do anything. They're making their lives more difficult by not accepting things as they are."

I sighed. "How long have we been here?"

The cute girl looked at me calmly. "Ten minutes."

I blinked twice. "This is going to be a loooooong night for all of us, I think."

"I'm Hinata," she introduced; I suppose since we'd probably spend most of our time together it only made since.

"I'm Tenten. I'm so glad that you're here."

"I'm glad, also, that you're here. It makes my life much easier."

I couldn't help but agree that her presence also made my life a good deal easier.

**BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK**

The next morning I woke up early. The escorts (or whatever you would call the people who were there to take us to our next challenge) were already there.

The next challenge was a mystery. But I suspected it would be something very different from camping. Which meant it would probably be something that I'm not very good at.

Three challenges, first was camping and that had been completed.

The escorts used me as their errand girl, getting the other girls up. Those lucky creeps, most of those girls were severely lacking in sleep since they stayed up complaining about how uncomfortable it was and they were already irritated because they didn't like anything about camping. One girl threw her hair dryer (don't ask me why she brought that with her) at me. But the escorts, who were all men, didn't want to walk in on sleeping ladies or worse, changing ladies, so I was put to the task. Losers.

Waking Hinata up proved to be the easiest of all, as she was already changed when I went in to get her.

"Those guys are here to take us to the next challenge," I said. "Are you ready to go?"

Hinata nodded and came out of her tent. "Maybe the next challenge will be better."

If only.

The next challenge took place in a gymnasium in a huge city. The name of the game was dodge ball. No, I'm serious. Dodge ball. What kind of a challenge was that? And what were they using it to test? Our ability to aim? In any case, Hinata and I are on the same team, thank the heavens, and she wasn't so good at dodge ball. Actually, I may have been the only person in the room that was really good, a few girls were halfway decent, probably because of high school gym class (some of us were still in high school; the oldest of us was a sophomore in college).

I stood in front of Hinata just catching anything that came at us and tossing it back at the other team. I have 100% accuracy and well, I would've feel bad leaving poor little Hinata to fend for herself. She was so pale that a bruise would've shown up significantly on her skin.

Of course, the other team was taken down quickly enough (to all the girls on my team that didn't get bruises because of dodge ball, you're welcome that I got them before they got you). Hinata smiled at me kindly.

"My cousin likes girls who can take care of themselves."

Again with the totally off the wall comment about her cousin. I didn't know her cousin, I didn't even know if we're talking about a boy or a girl here. I just knew that Hinata was very big on what her cousin liked.

"Um… that's nice…" I decided to say in order to fill the slightly awkward silence.

She smiled again and walked over to all of the escorts.

Challenge number two, dodge ball. Mission completed.

I wondered what challenge number three could possibly be.

Now all of the girls that were on the team opposite me were glaring at me. Apparently 'just a game' was lost on them. That or they were mad because they got hit with a dodge ball.

"The final challenge," one of the blonde escorts said, "is a scavenger hunt in this city. You'll be working solo on this and you're going to need to use your head. Don't get lost. Pick one of these on your way out and start your hunting."

I picked up one of the sheets, noting that they were all different, but they probably all led to the same final location. I looked at the sheet.

'_What has rivers but no water, cities but no buildings, forests but no trees, deserts but no sand, and mountains but no rocks?'_

I stared at the riddle for a moment. Seriously? It takes me a minute to focus on the details well enough to figure it out. A map!

Unfortunately there are maps all over the place. But, there would probably be a big map on one of the signs portraying the city. So I ran around looking for that. I'm not sure why I put so much effort into winning but I was sure I didn't have anything to worry about. The rich guy was probably putting us through these things to weed out girls like me.

Finally, I found the map I was looking for. It has a note taped to it.

'_It is a house to the houses of words.'_

'House of words. That was a book, right?' I thought. 'So a house to a book would be a bookshelf? No, too broad. A library.' There was only one that showed up on the map so I headed there.

The note was hanging on a door.

'_Congratulations on making it this far. Has it taken you long? All is well, it is almost over. Just end at the beginning.'_

My first thought was that I needed to head back to the gymnasium. That's where the scavenger hunt had started after all. But then I decided that was too obvious and that if someone gave up they would head back there anyway without having all of the clues.

So I went back to the woods we had been camping in. It was a long trek from the library but I headed there anyway. The worst that could happen is that I lost, right?

I got there and Hinata is already sitting on the same log that we had sat together on the night before.

That meant Hinata won, right?

"Tenten! Congratulations on making it here first," Hinata said, smiling prettily. "How did you know to come here?"

"Just end at the beginning. At first I thought the gymnasium but that seemed too obvious and also I figured if anyone gave up they would probably head there so I came here. Um… what do you mean first? You're here."

"Oh, I'm not one of the contestants, for lack of better word. I'm one of the judges. I knew my cousin would like you. My cousin likes smart girls, too."

"… Your cousin is… the person…"

"Yes."

"…I see…"

"I apologize for the misunderstanding, but in order to best see the personalities of all of the girls they couldn't know I was the one judging them. Since you more or less won every challenge I'd say you're very likely to get along with my cousin."

I stared and she stared back. I suddenly realized that she wasn't joking.

So I did the only thing I could in this situation. I ran for my life. My only thought was, 'I won so I have to get out of here'.

About halfway out of the woods I slammed into some guy. I looked up and almost died. He was really handsome. And I knew him the second I saw him. His name is Neji and I met him at Ino's birthday party last year. We spent most of the night making out in a closet. As if I wasn't traumatized enough. So I faked not knowing him.

"Excuse me, sorry, I have to go, bye," I shouted as I started running again. Except that he grabbed my arm.

"Where are you going in such a hurry and why?"

"Don't know and because I have to get out of this place! Let go, please, in a hurry here!"

"Aren't you one of the contestants?"

At this point naturally Hinata came running into sight.

"Tenten! Why did you run away?" Then she looked at the guy. "Ah! Neji! You're here! Tenten just won the scavenger hunt! And the camping! And dodge ball! She's like your perfect girl!"

Great, Neji is the guy whose affections I'm supposed to be winning. So I started trying to talk my way out of it.

"Listen, you have to understand! I didn't sign up for this. I think it was my friend, Lee. He would do something like this to me. Or maybe Ino, she would, too. But I didn't, so please let me go?"

And of course he didn't. Darn it. I had thought my rambling would definitely do it.

"To be honest, I'm not really in the mood to argue," Neji stated. "So, you're just going to have to be a good girl and come along nicely."

I bristled instantly. "I'm not a dog and you are not in charge of me!"

So I was suddenly scooped up bridal style. "I think that we should wed immediately," he stated.

"I don't even _know_ you," I squealed.

"No? Are you sure? Because we've met before, Tenten."

"I _don't _know you!"

"Yamanaka's birthday last year? I was forced to go by some mutual friends. I'm a little offended that you don't remember me since we spent the better part of the evening making out in a closet."

"Darn it, I knew you looked familiar." I thought I may as well admit it since he already knew I knew him anyway.

"Looked familiar? Maybe you're having problems since we were in the dark and a good deal closer than this. Perhaps I should jog your memory?"

Neji kissed me then.

"Do you remember now?"

"It's coming back to me."

Hinata, for the record, was beat red. "I… I should go find the others! N-N-Naruto! Let's g-go find the others!" and she ran off.

"Good, she's gone," Neji stated. He sat me on the ground carefully. "Now we must avoid those psychos that want to get us married in a huge church with more people there than either of us know."

"What?"

"I'm pretty sure there's a wedding chapel we can elope in a few miles from here."

"Wait a second!"

"If you're going to ask what I'm talking about then I'm talking about our marriage. So come on. We can do this my way or their way."

"Or no way! I've met you twice!"

"Don't be difficult, Tenten. I won't marry anyone except you and since this is the case, it will be happening today, because my uncle is insisting I marry today."

"I said no."

And I was scooped back up.

"On that note, struggling won't help you. I'll carry you the whole way there and no one will stop me."

"You think?"

"I know. Because, I am rich and people will just let me pass by."

I managed to flip out of his arms. I then proceeded to kick him in the shins.

"You like strong girls, Neji? Then come and get me!" And I ran off as fast as I could.

I didn't have to look to know he was coming after me.

Sometimes things just work out the way they're supposed to.

A/N: Hey everyone! I haven't posted anything in awhile. I've been pretty busy. Note that I haven't written Nejiten in some time so I'm a little rusty on them. But I hope that you liked this. **Please R&R. **btw I was initially writing this in present tense and then changed it to past tense so if something is massively messed up then please either ignore it (if it doesn't bother you) or tell me (if it does). I may have left a few on purpose if I thought it made sense, but overall I think I took all of them out. Have a nice day!


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